Embershroud
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Embershroud Terms of Service

Version 1.5 - Last updated: 1 September 2026 (added a monetizable gameplay streaming license while excluding in-game audio unless later cleared; distinguished purchased and earned Cinder; described balance corrections and the receipt-matched post-deletion settlement route; replaced the fixed 90-day shutdown notice with reasonable notice and any legal minimum; added the dedicated security-report route, bounded events-beyond-control, sanctions and export-control, and entire-agreement terms; and moved operational commerce details out of the public terms). When this document changes, the new version and date appear here and earlier versions remain available on request.

These terms are a contract between you and Iterative Studios AB for the Embershroud game and its online service. You accept them when you affirmatively accept them in the game or account flow; during pre-release phases before that flow exists, you accept them by installing or playing after receiving them with your playtest invitation. If you do not accept them, do not use the service. They sit alongside the game privacy policy and the terms of the store platform you play through; the website terms cover embershroud.com separately.

Who we are

Iterative Studios AB, a limited company registered in Sweden
Organisation number: 559392-0605
Email: [email protected] - or the contact form

Some words we use

  • Service - the Embershroud game client, game servers, and account systems, together.
  • Store Platform - the store you play through: Steam on PC, and the Apple App Store or Google Play on mobile when those versions are available.
  • Cinder - in-game currency that may be purchased or earned.
  • Virtual Items - characters, items, currencies, entitlements, and other in-game features tied to your account.
  • User Content - things you author in the service: names, chat messages, guild details, shared build blueprints, and similar.
  • Playtest - any pre-release phase such as a closed alpha or beta.

1. Your license

We grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable license - terminable as set out in these terms - to install and play Embershroud for your own entertainment. The game software, server technology, databases, art, and associated trademarks are owned by or licensed to Iterative Studios AB. You retain any rights you have in your own User Content (section 7). Except as this license, section 2, or applicable law allows, you may not reproduce, distribute, publish, or create derivative works from the game. Third-party open-source components are covered by their own licenses, listed in the client's notices.

2. Streaming and gameplay content

Subject to these terms, we grant you a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to record, stream, publicly display, and distribute audiovisual content that you create from your own Embershroud gameplay, including screenshots, livestreams, edited videos, commentary, guides, and reviews. You may monetize that content through advertising, subscriptions, sponsorships, and viewer donations, including options offered by the hosting platform. No separate permission from us is required.

This permission covers our game footage, interface, and characters only as they appear in that gameplay content and only to the extent we control the relevant rights. In-game music and sound effects are not included in this permission; mute game audio in published content unless a creator-use notice from us expressly identifies audio you may include. This permission does not let you redistribute the game or its files, extract or distribute assets or music separately, imply that we endorse you, disclose confidential or unreleased material you obtained under a separate restriction, or use third-party material beyond the rights its owner allows. Except for the narrow permission in section 7 for User Content that appears incidentally on screen, this license grants no rights in another player's User Content or personal data. Ordinary gameplay content may incidentally show another player's character or display name, public profile details, guild membership, presence, or messages as the service presents them, but you are responsible for complying with applicable law and platform rules and may not extract or reuse that material outside the gameplay context. Your own original commentary, editing, and other additions remain yours.

The license for gameplay content you create continues while that content complies with these terms. We may require removal or alteration only where reasonably necessary because the content infringes rights, itself breaks these terms or applicable law, exposes confidential or unreleased material, or creates a material security risk. We do not claim your lawful revenue merely because permitted gameplay appears in the content.

For a Playtest or another pre-release phase, the confidentiality, streaming, and screenshot conditions in your invitation or other access terms override this section.

3. Your account and age

You sign in through a Store Platform, an email address, or a device-only route where available. You are responsible for the security of your device, your email account, and your platform account, and for what happens through your Embershroud account.

You must be at least 13 years old to use the service, and you must also meet any higher minimum age your Store Platform requires. If you are below the age at which you can independently enter this contract where you live, your parent or legal guardian must review and accept these terms for you, and purchases by minors require whatever authorisation applicable law and the Store Platform's rules demand.

4. Fair play - what you may not do

Embershroud's competition depends on everyone playing the same game. You may not:

  • modify or adapt the game client, game state, or game data, or interfere with the client's integrity measures;
  • connect to the online service through anything other than the official game application or interfaces we officially provide;
  • reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the game or probe its protocols, except to the narrow extent applicable law permits despite this clause;
  • use automation that performs gameplay decisions or actions without equivalent contemporaneous input from you, repeats actions to farm progress, or provides an unfair competitive advantage. Accessibility tools and ordinary input remapping that do not automate gameplay are fine, unless we tell you otherwise for a specific competitive mode;
  • knowingly abuse bugs or exploits for advantage. Discovering or accidentally triggering a bug is not a breach - knowingly repeating, concealing, sharing, or profiting from one is. Report what you find through our security vulnerability route, and good-faith reports will never be treated as a violation by themselves;
  • manipulate leaderboards, competitions, or match results, including by using multiple accounts or coordinating accounts for that purpose (owning more than one platform account is not itself a violation - using them to manipulate competition is);
  • buy, sell, trade, or transfer accounts, characters, items, or Cinder for real money or anything of value outside the game ("RMT");
  • use multiple devices to access the same account simultaneously;
  • harass, threaten, or defraud other players, impersonate others, or post unlawful, hateful, or sexually exploitative content in chat, names, or any other player-authored surface.

5. Enforcement and appeals

The server is authoritative and we log what we need to keep the game fair. Depending on severity we may warn you, remove offending content or names, invalidate affected leaderboard entries or rewards, temporarily suspend your account or device, or permanently ban it. A permanent ban decided by a person also removes the account's chat messages. Where a violation involved fraud or RMT we may also adjust or remove wrongly obtained items or currency.

When we act against your account we tell you, where reasonably possible and legally permitted, what category of rule was violated, what action was taken, and for how long - without exposing anti-cheat methods or other players' data. Automated systems may detect and flag suspicious activity or filter chat, but permanent bans and other decisions with similarly significant effects are reviewed by a person. We may apply urgent temporary restrictions before full review where needed to protect players or the service. Appeals are free: send your appeal through the contact form with the case reference from your notice; we confirm receipt, a person reviews it, and you receive a reasoned outcome without undue delay. If an appeal succeeds, we reverse the sanction and restore paid Cinder and other entitlements it removed; other effects are restored where technically possible. We report content to authorities where the law requires it.

6. Virtual items and Cinder

Cinder and Virtual Items are licensed features of the service. They are not legal tender, are not transferable outside the game's own systems, and are not redeemable for cash except where these terms or applicable law require settlement. This does not reduce the consumer rights attached to anything you paid for.

Purchased Cinder does not expire while your account exists. Earned Cinder may be available through limited features and may carry feature-specific eligibility, use, or expiry conditions, but those conditions will be clearly disclosed before the relevant earning activity or grant and will not apply retroactively. We keep purchased and earned Cinder distinguishable. When you spend Cinder, promotional and earned Cinder are used before purchased Cinder, preserving purchased value for as long as possible. The exact calculation and reconciliation process are internal; any future allocation change that materially affects purchased value or a refund will be disclosed before it applies and will not apply retroactively.

Purchases use your Store Platform's billing system. Depending on the platform and region, the Store Platform may be the merchant of record and may handle payment refunds under its terms. We provide and maintain Cinder and Virtual Items in Embershroud and remain responsible for the obligations that apply to us as the game provider. Prices may vary by region and may change, but changes apply only to future purchases and never alter a completed transaction.

If something you paid for is not delivered, is delivered wrongly, or does not work as it should, use the Store Platform's available remedy route or contact us through the contact form. We will provide any remedy we owe without charge and without undue delay. Store policies, immediate delivery, and use of Cinder do not limit any withdrawal, refund, or other statutory right that applies to you.

We may proportionately correct Cinder balances or Virtual Items where reasonably necessary to address an error, refund, chargeback, fraud, exploit, or legal or platform requirement. Your Cinder is held in one shared balance. A deduction is capped at the affected value and at the Cinder then left in that balance; we do not collect any shortfall from you. This means a refund or chargeback may reduce Cinder left from another purchase if the Cinder first credited for the affected purchase has already been spent. If you believe a material correction is wrong or need an explanation, use the contact form; we will explain and review it on request unless doing so would be unlawful or materially compromise security or anti-fraud controls. Repeated refund abuse or deliberate exploitation may also be handled under section 5. Corrections never override your statutory rights.

7. Your content

You retain your rights in your User Content. So the service can function, you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license, with the limited right to sublicense only as needed, to host, reproduce, cache, transmit, display, technically adapt (for example reformatting), moderate, and make your User Content available through the service's features - including to other players where the feature shares it (chat, guilds, shared blueprints) and to the service providers who run our infrastructure. This includes permitting another player to capture and redistribute the incidental on-screen appearance of your User Content only within gameplay content permitted under section 2; it does not permit extraction or reuse outside that gameplay context. This license lasts while the content or your account exists, and continues only as needed for backups, legal evidence, and copies already legitimately shared or published under these terms; deleted content may persist briefly in backups before expiring. We will not use your User Content in marketing without asking you separately. If you believe content in the game infringes your rights, contact us via the contact form.

You are responsible for what you post, and section 4's conduct rules apply to all of it.

8. Playtests and early phases

During Playtests: features are incomplete and will change; balance values are experimental; availability is not guaranteed; and characters and progress may be reset or wiped between phases. Your invitation states whether a specific test is confidential and whether streaming or screenshots are allowed. You grant us a non-exclusive, perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free right to use feedback you give us about the game, without compensation - this covers your suggestions about the game, not ownership of your unrelated ideas.

9. Updates and changes to the game

Embershroud is an online, actively developed game. We may update it from time to time - updates may be required to keep playing - and we change it for reasons such as: security and abuse prevention; legal or platform requirements; bug fixes and technical compatibility; maintaining performance and availability; adding, improving, or retiring features in active development; gameplay balance, economy integrity, and fair competition; and preventing fraud, exploits, or harm.

Balancing and content rotation may occur without individual notice, subject to mandatory law. For changes that materially and negatively affect paid functionality, you receive the information, notice, and remedies - including, where applicable, a right to terminate - that consumer law in your country provides for continuously supplied digital services. We will always make clear what a purchase contains before you pay. Maintenance and unplanned outages happen; we aim for reliability but do not guarantee uninterrupted availability.

10. Service lifetime

Embershroud requires our online service to play. If we ever permanently discontinue it, we will give reasonable advance notice in the game and on this website where practicable, and at least any notice applicable law requires. If advance notice is impossible because continued operation is unlawful, insecure, or genuinely impossible, we will give as much notice as reasonably possible. We will stop selling Cinder and paid offers no later than the shutdown announcement.

During any notice period you can spend Cinder and request settlement of Cinder you purchased and have not spent. Earned Cinder and unconsumed free or promotional entitlements lapse when the service closes unless their disclosed conditions or applicable law provide otherwise. Paid entitlements receive the treatment disclosed when purchased and any remedies applicable law requires. We will explain how to request settlement and exercise account export or deletion. After closure, we will continue to accept purchased-value settlement requests for as long as applicable law requires. Mandatory remedies remain unaffected. Beyond these commitments, and to the extent permitted by law, we are not liable for loss of access to accounts, characters, or Virtual Items at the end of the service's life.

11. Termination

You may stop using the service and delete your account at any time. Before you confirm, the game explains the material consequences, including the treatment of Cinder and unconsumed entitlements, and you can cancel instead. Earned Cinder and unconsumed free or promotional entitlements lapse on deletion unless their disclosed conditions or applicable law provide otherwise. Paid entitlements receive the treatment disclosed when purchased and any remedies applicable law requires. Cinder you purchased and have not spent is different: you may spend it before deletion or request settlement, and any allocation rule affecting the purchased amount will be disclosed before it applies. If settlement remains outstanding after deletion, keep your Store Platform receipt and contact us with its order reference and the available purchase evidence because that receipt is the surviving way to match the claim after we remove your account identifiers. Deleting your account never requires giving up purchased value, and your statutory rights, including erasure, are unaffected.

We may suspend or terminate accounts that breach these terms, as described in section 5; a suspended account cannot make purchases. A temporary suspension or restriction does not by itself remove Cinder. On a final termination we may make the proportionate corrections described in section 6, including removing value obtained through fraud, prohibited real-money trading, or a refunded or charged-back purchase. Any lawfully purchased Cinder remaining after the section 6 allocation and correction rules remains available for settlement, and if an appeal succeeds we reverse the sanction and restore affected paid value.

On termination your license to install and play the game ends and you must stop using it. The section 2 license for gameplay content you created before termination continues while that content complies with these terms. Termination does not erase records we must keep for legal, accounting, fraud-prevention, or dispute purposes (see the privacy policy), and your Store Platform keeps its own records (such as achievements and purchase history) under its own terms. Appeals and privacy requests remain available after termination.

12. Liability

The game is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties beyond those the law requires. Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, intent, or gross negligence, or any other liability that cannot be excluded under applicable law - and nothing reduces the remedies consumer law gives you for digital content and services that do not conform to the contract. Subject to that, and to the extent permitted by applicable law, we are not liable for indirect or unforeseeable losses, and our total liability for other claims arising from the game or these terms is limited to the greater of the amount you paid for Embershroud, including through your Store Platform, in the twelve months before the claim arose and any minimum the law requires.

13. Your responsibility

To the extent permitted by applicable law, you agree to compensate Iterative Studios AB for losses and reasonable defence costs that are finally awarded against us, or reasonably incurred, because you intentionally or negligently infringed someone's rights through your User Content, committed fraud against the service, or unlawfully attacked it. This applies only to the extent you caused the loss, remains subject to mandatory law, and does not apply to ordinary consumer use of the game.

14. Governing law and disputes

These terms are intended to apply wherever the service is offered and are governed by the laws of Sweden. Nothing in them excludes, restricts, or modifies rights or remedies that applicable law does not permit us to exclude, restrict, or modify. If you are a consumer, you keep the protection of the mandatory consumer laws of your country of residence and may bring disputes before your local courts where those laws allow. Consumers in Sweden may also turn to the National Board for Consumer Disputes (Allmänna reklamationsnämnden, ARN - arn.se). For any legal, billing, enforcement, or privacy matter, use the contact form or email above - those are the official channels. Our Discord is a community space, not a channel for formal disputes. We prefer to solve problems directly - talk to us first.

15. Changes to these terms

We may change these terms for the kinds of reasons listed in section 9, or to reflect new features, legal requirements, or clarifications. Material changes are announced in the game and on this site with reasonable advance notice, an updated version and date above, and a plain-language summary of what changed; where the law or good sense requires it, we ask you to accept the new version before continuing. Changes never take away entitlements you already bought or rights that accrued before the change. If you do not accept updated terms you must stop playing and may delete your account; urgent changes needed for legal, security, or fraud reasons may take effect immediately, with notice following promptly.

16. General

Your Store Platform's terms also apply to platform matters (payment, refunds, platform accounts) and prevail for those matters where they must; these terms govern your relationship with us. Links to third-party services (Discord, the wiki, stores) lead to services we do not control. We may transfer this contract as part of a corporate merger, sale, or reorganisation, subject to applicable law and notice; you may not transfer your account or this contract. If a clause of these terms is invalid, the rest remains in effect to the extent the law allows. Not enforcing a clause today does not waive it for tomorrow.

We are not responsible for delay or failure caused by an event outside our reasonable control, such as a serious infrastructure or communications failure, natural disaster, war, civil emergency, government action, or labour dispute, while and to the extent that event prevents performance. We will take reasonable steps to reduce the effects and resume performance when reasonably possible. This does not excuse a payment or refund already due and does not limit any mandatory right or remedy.

You may use the service only where permitted by applicable export-control, trade-control, and sanctions laws. We may restrict access only to the extent reasonably necessary to comply with those laws or a binding authority requirement. Where legally permitted, we will provide notice and a reason, and any purchased-value settlement or mandatory remedy that may lawfully be provided remains available.

These terms, the disclosures shown when you make a purchase, any feature-specific terms you accept, and any Playtest invitation or other access terms that apply to you form the entire agreement between you and Iterative Studios AB about the service and replace earlier agreements about the same subject. Where those documents conflict, an express priority rule in them applies, including the Playtest override in section 2. Nothing in this clause excludes a statement, right, or remedy that applicable law makes binding.

17. Contact

Iterative Studios AB (details under "Who we are") - [email protected] or the contact form.